Pay betterment charges for converted sites from tomorrow

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike will collect betterment charges for regularisation of sites formed on converted land, from Wednesday.

The site owners will be eligible to get ‘A’ khata on payment of betterment charges and their site will be as lawful as any site of the Bangalore Development Authority.

The Palike commissioner would issue a circular in this regard on Tuesday after consulting the legal cell officials and the charges could be paid from Wednesday.

As per the decision taken by the government, the BBMP has decided to collect a betterment fee of Rs 200 per square metre in the old wards and Rs 250 per square metre in new wards.

The Palike had 98 wards previously and with the inclusion of 110 villages under its limits, the number of wards increased to 198. Higher betterment fee has been fixed for new wards to mop up funds for their development.

“We had passed a resolution in the BBMP Council in February this year to start collecting the betterment charges, but it could not be implemented due to the model code of conduct. Now that the general elections are over, we have decided to collect betterment charges,” said a Palike officer.

The BBMP was in the process of collecting betterment charges from 2007. However, a writ petition was filed in the High Court of Karnataka challenging the government order. The petitioners had claimed that the order on collection of betterment charges lacked clarity, uniformity and justification.

The High Court directed the government to stop collecting betterment charges. The government was then compelled to review its order and later fixed a price of Rs 560 per sq metre, which was again challenged in the High Court.

The Court found fault in the rates and directed the government to rationalise the betterment fees.